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How do the Carnival Products differ?


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We have only sampled Princess from the Carnival product range and are about to try P&O. Reading reviews it seems that disapointment is often linked to expectations that do not work out in practice. What differences can we expect?

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We have only sampled Princess from the Carnival product range and are about to try P&O. Reading reviews it seems that disapointment is often linked to expectations that do not work out in practice. What differences can we expect?

 

Older ships' date=' younger crowd, more lively around the ship...probably not quite as "slick" service and foodwise but they rate well for entertianment. The P & O ships have a loyal fan base who sail on them repeatedly and with plenty of good reviews...possibly the Sun has passed its use by date thats seems to be about it.[/font']

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Hmm, there's quite a big difference between Princess AU and P&O AU.

 

P&O is substantially more crowded, and generally has a younger, partylike atmosphere going (activities, Hawaiian dress, Toga and so on). There are fewer inclusions e.g. no ice cream (except charged for), pizza is charged for.

 

It's probably a good idea to read through a lot of the reviews of P&O cruises on this site to see what other people have described. Their satisfaction is often based on expectations as you point out, but they'll often describe the details that they're reacting to. That'll give you a better idea of what to expect.

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Our take ...........

 

Princess - older clientele, excellent food, traditional cruise experience.

Holland America - like Princess, perhaps a bit more up-market and their ships are BLACK .

P & O (UK) - like Princess, perhaps a bit more staid and British in form .

P & O Australia - more middle of the road, younger crowd . 3 star product, quantity but not necessarily quality here. No match for P & O UK .

Costa - An Italian flavour here, great food , all nationalities in travellers.

Good itineraries in Asia and great value too .

Seabourn - Smaller vessels and a specialist upmarket product.

Carnival - family and young oriented with fun ships and activities.

Cunard - Your'e sailing the Rolls Royce product here , older mature cruisers.

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Our take ...........

 

Princess - older clientele, excellent food, traditional cruise experience.

Holland America - like Princess, perhaps a bit more up-market and their ships are BLACK .

P & O (UK) - like Princess, perhaps a bit more staid and British in form .

P & O Australia - more middle of the road, younger crowd . 3 star product, quantity but not necessarily quality here. No match for P & O UK .

Costa - An Italian flavour here, great food , all nationalities in travellers.

Good itineraries in Asia and great value too .

Seabourn - Smaller vessels and a specialist upmarket product.

Carnival - family and young oriented with fun ships and activities.

Cunard - Your'e sailing the Rolls Royce product here , older mature cruisers.

Good description - save for HAL, older range of pax than Princess (just !)

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I am not sure that it is correct to say that P&O AUS passengers are "younger" than Princess. From my experience this is VERY dependent on the particular cruise, especially on the length of it. Our last 28 day cruise to Tahiti had a wide variation of age ( and we were surprised at how many children there were) - BUT there were also a LOT of quite aged people.

 

Barry

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I am not sure that it is correct to say that P&O AUS passengers are "younger" than Princess. From my experience this is VERY dependent on the particular cruise, especially on the length of it. Our last 28 day cruise to Tahiti had a wide variation of age ( and we were surprised at how many children there were) - BUT there were also a LOT of quite aged people.

 

Barry

 

 

I have to second this, there were more aged passengers on this cruise then the last Princess cruise I did. Although to be fair, the Princess was a Christmas/ holiday cruise.

 

Princess is the "premium" sister line of P&O, so straight up you shouldn't have the same expectations of P&O as Princess.

 

P&O are cheaper then Princess to cruise with and this is reflected in the product, I like to say you get what you pay for ;)

 

Having said this the product is very similar and shares many similarities with Princess, P&O even do some things better, like choices of butter/oils with dinner and using decent champagne in the champagne waterfall.

 

Best advice is enjoy the cruise, don't dwell on the things that Princess did that P&O don't, there's a reason you didn't pay as much for the cruise :D

 

P&O entertainment/activities is 1000 times better then Princess as well.

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